US 7,600,206 B2
Method of estimating the signal delay in a VLSI circuit
Ming-Hong Lai, Taichung (Taiwan); Chao-Hsuan Hsu, Toufen Township, Miaoli County (Taiwan); Chia-Chi Chu, Tao-Yuan (Taiwan); and Wu-Shiung Feng, Tao-Yuan (Taiwan)
Assigned to Chang Gung University, Tao-Yuan (Taiwan)
Filed on Apr. 09, 2007, as Appl. No. 11/733,030.
Prior Publication US 2008/0250369 A1, Oct. 09, 2008
Int. Cl. G06F 17/50 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 716—6  [716/4; 716/5; 703/19] 4 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of estimating signal delay in a VLSI circuit, comprising:
inputting a file interconnect circuit parasitic parameter, a signal transition time, a logic cell library, and a circuit structure of an original system to a file data read system; for each network interconnect system, analyzing structure of a specific target interconnect circuit and calculating a system moment of the specific target interconnect circuit which is applied to calculation of an equivalent capacitance and construction of a projection matrix; in recursion moment operation, a circuit moment of each node in the specific target interconnect circuit being obtained in linear time, and the projection matrix being further constructed;
in construction of a reduced model, determining whether an amount of nodes in the specific target interconnect circuit is higher than a default order; when higher than the default order, applying a sparse matrix to store the file interconnect parasitic circuit parameter of the original system; and applying sparse matrix multiplication to obtain a final reduced model for analysis of a signal time domain that is simulated by a simulation system; with the final reduced model staying passive and stable and having an operation condition of input and output nodes identical to that of the original system;
contrarily, when less than the default order, constructing a Modified Nodal Analysis matrix system directly corresponding to a Modified Nodal Analysis matrix system representing a current and voltage behavior pattern for analysis of the time domain simulation;
with the analysis of the signal time domain simulation, calculating an equivalent capacitance loaded by a drive element and applying a table look-up to obtain an output signal of an input interconnect circuit structure;
with the analysis of the signal time domain simulation, making a time domain simulation for the Modified Nodal Analysis matrix system and then off analyzing for a drive logic gate delay time, an interconnection circuit delay time, and a output signal conversion time; and
determining whether a interconnect network system has not been processed; if yes, returning the structure of the specific target interconnect circuit to analyze a next signal from an interconnect circuit; and if not, making final the system delay estimation.